Chương 70: Retaliation

Did something remain of the planes he scoured? Yes, of course. Where do you think his armies come from? — He who calls himself Chi You, The Completed Works by He Shulin, foremost scholar of the Outer Realms Jianyi struggled. Not physically, though. He was sitting in peace in his cultivation chamber, needing to make a decision. Should he attend the training session with his friends or stay in his room and continue his meditation practice? It was clear what his mother would say.

He had briefly brought it up with Minghao, and the man had just looked at him with a raised eyebrow. If he was being honest with himself, it was also obvious what his responsibility was. That didn't change that he didn't want to. He felt that he would pose a risk to them. He felt that getting close to people seemed to end in pain most of the time. He felt that sitting in his chamber was the much easier solution. And of course, it would allow him to progress his cultivation and qi control.

Yes, the last point was critical. He settled down and pulled one, then two, and then a third thread of qi from the collected mass of motes on the bottom of his lower dantian. So far, he had always failed when trying to move those three threads through his channels at the same time; it was finally time to break that barrier. Instead of moving them through three different channels, he wanted to experiment with the idea of moving them all through the same channel. Maybe that would make it easier.

The first two moved without any issue into the channel connecting to his right arm. The third one progressed slowly but surely to the dantian border. It looked good; he was confident that he could make it. It would also be good to stay ahead of all the others in Elder Zhang's lecture. Shuhua was close to controlling two threads. Shuhua. He saw the tear running down her face after Jun's death. The third thread dissipated.

He almost cursed—that would be undignified, though—stood up and started the march towards the outer sect. He had decided to start the experiment of friendship just a few months ago. Letting it lapse at the first sign of trouble seemed weak—even more undignified than a curse. As he was already late, he strode quickly down the path. Surprisingly, the head of the guard at the paifang of the inner sect nodded to him as he walked past.

Jianyi returned the nod with a half-bow; an inner disciple deserved that much respect if he acknowledged him voluntarily. Shortly after, he arrived at the training grounds. Miyao sat alone on the stairs halfway to the other side of the area, her elbows on her knees, head bowed. He joined her, and she welcomed him with a smile that did not reach her eyes.

"Where are the others?"

"Hong traveled to the city to inform his family, and Shuhua accompanied him. She thought that he could use the support."

"That is kind of her, given that she wasn't in the best of places when we returned." The young woman nodded.

"Should we spar?" Jianyi was happy to oblige. Miyao was very good, and he felt a lot safer in the ring than trying to deal with his or Miyao's emotions.

A week passed. Hong and Shuhua returned from the city, lectures continued, group training was picked up again, though the levity and laughter that had made them enjoyable beyond the sparring were absent. All was normal. Until Elder Sun entered the courtyard in which Jianyi exercised.

"I have found the den that stood behind the servants in the sect. Let us show them what it means to attack the Fivefold Spear Sect." Jianyi grinned for the first time in almost two weeks.

Carried by the elder's qi, they had raced toward the city. While the first mission that the elder had taken him on in the city had been in one of the wealthiest parts, now they were in an area that his mother had always forbidden him from entering. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

The streets were narrow and mostly packed earth, instead of cobblestone; the walls of the narrow and low-slung buildings were grimy, and the smells coming out of the dark alleys were nauseating. Jianyi and his mother had grown up poor—but not that poor. Fortunately, this was a relatively small part of the city, but even Jianyi, focused as he had always been on his exercise, had heard that more and more people struggled. He had never made the connection with the ongoing war, though.

He still wasn't sure whether those things were related. The house they were observing was indistinguishable from all the others around it. Two stories, a rotten-looking pagoda-style roof, few windows, two of which were boarded over, and no ornamentation at all. There was no light shining from any of the windows into the cold, dark night—and during the hour they had been observing the building, nobody had entered or left.

Jianyi looked toward the elder who patiently observed the building from the entryway of an abandoned house half a block away. Given that the elder, who seemed to tend to explosive action when it came to cultists, could show patience, so would he. His spear was still in his storage ring but ready to go at any moment. For another hour or so, nothing happened. Then one figure, wearing a wide cloak hiding their features, came walking down the otherwise empty street and, after looking around, entered the building.

Again, Jianyi looked at the elder, who gave no indication to move forward. While Jianyi contemplated the progress he had made on his meditations over the recent week, there was more movement down the street. This time, two people, a man and a woman, entered the building. Over the next half hour, three more potential cultists joined the others, and finally Elder Sun nodded. Jianyi had expected him to burst forward and destroy everything in his way, but that was not what happened.

Instead, the elder moved casually and looked back at Jianyi to see whether he was ready as he stopped by the door. Jianyi grabbed his spear and nodded. With a soft crack, the door opened, and the elder slipped into the building. Jianyi followed. The entry hall looked abandoned, detritus lying on the floor, the only light coming from the window on the left. A quick glance confirmed that the only other room on the floor was equally empty.

The stairs to the second floor looked dodgy, and no light or sound was coming from there either. The elder moved unerringly towards the back corner of the second room. There, hidden behind a rotting straw mattress, was a trapdoor that could be pulled open with a short, grimy piece of rope. The elder grinned at him with a predatory gleam in his eyes, pulled open the door, and jumped down, ignoring the ladder to the side.

As shouts emanated from below, Jianyi followed swiftly, though he did take a couple of the rungs of the ladder before jumping the final one and a half paces. They stood in a room, almost a cavern, that was much larger than the house above had indicated. Jianyi guessed that it was at least fifteen paces wide and likely longer. On the left, a set-up very similar to the one Administrator Deng had had available was visible.

A table with straps to hold a victim down, plus lots of metal instruments and glassware that would make many alchemists proud. At the center of the room, a ritual circle was carved into the ground with silver formations and incense sticks forming intricate patterns. The shouts Jianyi had heard came from the right, though, where a dozen people, way more than they had seen enter the building, were seated around a large, low table.

If you hadn't seen the rest of the room, you would think they were having a nice evening with friends, given the drinks and finger food decorating the table. Jianyi's qi sense was still undeveloped, but for him, those people looked largely like mortals. That didn't absolve them of their sins, though, and just as he moved to advance, following the elder, one of the cultists at the far end of the table proved him wrong when cards appeared before her, and she made moves to activate a technique.

Before she could complete the action, Elder Sun was there, piercing her chest with his spear. Jianyi did not remain idle, either. One of the men closest to him wore padded leather armor like mercenaries or caravan guards often did. He drew a heavy dao and readied himself to attack him with the curved sword. Not taking any risks, Jianyi drew two cards from his deck. Verdant Mending. Force of the Forest. He activated the swift card and felt his body strengthen.

His subsequent lunge and strike pierced the man's armor above his hip. The cultist grimaced and tried to counter, but the wound and pain made him clatter to the ground. Before Jianyi could finish him off, another cultist tried to sneak up on him from the side, but Jianyi had learned his lessons on maintaining spatial awareness. He sidestepped the cudgel strike and inflicted a deep wound on the woman's shoulder with a cleave of his spear—no form was needed. The dao wielder managed to stand but was too slow.

Two quick slashes from Jianyi killed both him and the woman. There was silence in the cellar, as Elder Sun had dealt with the remaining cultists in the meantime. Jianyi looked around and felt… disappointed. The cell of cultists that had managed to infiltrate the sect was dead—or at least some of its members—but it didn't seem like a major victory. Even the fight in the mansion with the demon had felt more meaningful. How many more of these groups existed across the city, the region?

Were most of these people mortals? What were they getting out of all of this? Why did they betray humanity? Maybe a thorough search of the building would yield some answers. For now, Jianyi had to accept that a small step in the revenge for Jun had been taken, but the real enemies were the demons and only their eradication would satisfy him. Meanwhile, Elder Sun had extracted cards from the cultivator he had defeated. Looking through them, one seemed to elicit mild surprise.

The old man held the card up and threw it over to Jianyi.

"This one could make a difference for you." Jianyi caught it and looked at it with the same excitement that he had felt when he had seen his first card—the only difference being that this might be the next powerful technique that he could wield. Bamboo Shoot Grove Qi Uncommon Increases passive spirit cultivation moderately It was not a technique, it was not something spectacular like another fire-based attack—no, it was the opposite. His first Qi card.

The first card he could place in his middle dantian to speed up his cultivation. He had actually thought about potentially using his slowly accumulating contribution points to buy one of those. Now that was not needed, or at least not quite as urgent.

"Thank you, teacher! I will add it as soon as we are back home." Elder Sun continued his search for information on the activities of the cultists while Jianyi thought about the fact that the qi card had somehow elicited a larger emotional reaction than the slaughter of the cultists.